This invention relates to communication handsets and more specifically to secure or encrypted handsets.
At the present time, there is a large number of different hand-held communication devices, such as remote telephones, cellular telephones, two-way radios, etc. In many instances it is desirable to provide secure or encrypted communications to prevent interception of the information by outside parties. A problem arises because of the large number of different devices. Examples of some different wireless devices are AMPS, GSM (a European TDMA cellular phone), Iridium, IS95 (CDMA), Tetra (a European terrestrial trunked radio), and an example of a wired device is V.34 MODEM.
Each of these wireless and wired devices has a different front-end and a different operating format for the transceiver portion. In order for one manufacturer to produce secure or encryption devices for all of these different communication devices, it is presently necessary to produce a different module for each different device because the module must be compatible with the different front-ends and the different operating formats. Thus, one manufacturer must produce literally dozens of different products to match the dozens of different devices that may require a secure or encryption module. Clearly, this is impractical since the manufacturer may only sell a few of any one module in his particular area. Further, each time that a customer changes the handheld communication device that he is using (e.g., buys a different model of telephone) or purchases a second type of handheld communication device, he must buy a new or another encryption module. This becomes extremely expensive and can severely curtail the customer""s exchange and purchase of different equipment.
Also, if any of these encryption modules are to be used by the U.S. Government, each of these encryption modules must be separately certified for use on Government applications. The Government certification process is long and expensive so that a manufacturer loses a great amount of time and money if it attempts to certify several different encryption modules.
Accordingly it is highly desirable to provide multiple format secure voice apparatus for communication handsets.